Louisville Falls To Indiana in Late Game Disaster

Louisville falls to 2-3 and is looking for answers after losing in New York

The Louisville Cardinals fell to the Indiana Hoosiers last night in a 74-66 loss. The Cardinals were down ten early in the first half, but fought back to get it down to 5 points by halftime. The Cardinals then got a 7 point lead with under ten minutes left in the 2nd half. The Hoosiers were able to pull away late, and put away the Cards in the final 8 minutes, by taking an 8 point victory.

Louisville was able to cut the lead and almost take a double digit lead in the 2nd half. Skyy Clark and Ty-Laur Johnson were the star players of the game, and Johnson especially played really well today against Indiana. Johnson had 6 points and 5 assists, but when he was on the court the Cardinals were moving the ball around well offensively and it was some of the best offense seen in the Kenny Payne era. However, when Indiana switched to a zone defense, Louisville looked out of sorts, and that was ultimately the demise of the Cardinals.

The Cardinals were on a role during the 2nd half, but some key coaching decisions plagued them in the 2nd half. Kenny Payne had a lot of goodwill built up after the Texas game, with the way his team played and nearly knocked off a top 20 team, it was very impressive.

Putting Zan Payne in over Ty-Laur Johnson when Johnson had been playing terrific is not an acceptable. When Indiana switched over to a zone Louisville had no answer, and that is simply unacceptable as a head coach of a program like Louisville.

The Cardinals showed a lot of promise in their 2 games in the Empire Classic, but they will need to sustain how they played and Payne needs to get better with his coaching adjustments. They have some winnable home games before ACC play starts, but Payne will need to win games if he wants to keep his job as the Louisville head coach.